Blog Archive

  • Preventing too-short final lines of text blocks

    At the end my previous post, I said I’d settle for direct control over widows and orphans in text blocks. It turns out not to be quite as a simple as one might think, with lots of discussion over the years. I created an experiment to test a solution.

  • An end to typographic widows on the web

    Currently shipping in Chrome Canary, and thus soon to be in Blink-based browsers including Edge, is a relatively new CSS declaration which promises to virtually end typographic widows.

  • Font optical sizing bug in Safari 16

    In my previous post I extolled the virtues of Literata’s font optical sizing, in particular how it worked automatically in the browser. That is until the release of Safari 16 with macOS Ventura. Here’s how to work around the bug.

  • New year, new typeface: switching to variable fonts

    My website used to be set primarily in two very different typefaces: Ingeborg and Premiéra. This is story of how I switched to a fantastic single variable font which provided the same practical and stylistic benefits, only better.

  • Avoiding groupthink: fine-tuning CSS specifications

    Every now and then I’m asked to help out the CSS Working Group, especially when typography is involved. Invariably it’s also a chance to learn, not just about upcoming CSS, but also new methods of collaboration and group decision making.

  • How to typeset a date range properly

    During these 10 days of mourning following the death of the Queen, wherever you look – on websites, billboards and shop windows – we are presented with a badly typeset date range: 1926 – 2022. Here’s how to do it correctly.

  • How to subset a variable font

    Professional fonts can contain a lot characters you will never use, increasing file size uncessarily. These characters can be removed by subsetting a font. This post explains how to subset fonts from first principles on a Mac using fonttools.

  • Top Tunes 2021

    Here’s a playlist of favourite songs I bought this year. Not quite a record-breaking haul, but a floor full of vinyl none-the-less. A mixture of new, not so new, and old; and some real corkers in amongst them.

  • One year on and what next for remote working?

    Since the UK locked down 52 weeks ago, Clearleft folks have been working fully remotely. As the vaccine works its magic, in a few months time we’ll be able to move back into our studio. What happens then?

  • Top Tunes 2020

    Here’s a playlist of favourite songs I bought this year. Not quite a record-breaking haul, but a floor full of vinyl none-the-less. A mixture of new, not so new, and old; and some real corkers in amongst them.

  • Shining a light on Neon

    Design by Clearleft on behalf of EngineeringUK, Neon breaks down stereotypes about engineering careers through inspirational case studies and experiences. A cause close to my heart, as a former engineer.

  • The best compostable Nespresso capsules

    Searching for a rich, bold, chocolatey Nespresso coffee, ethically sourced, and home-compostable pods, I tried 17 different coffees from 5 different brands until finally I came across two which hit the mark.

  • Top Tunes 2017

    I’ve been back filling my best ofs, so here’s a compilation of favourite songs I bought in 2017. It was the start of a sequence of excellent music-buying years.

  • Top Tunes 2019

    Here’s a compilation of favourite songs I bought this year, and another damn fine year it was too.

  • JOGLE Day 11 – Tiverton to Liskeard

    Day 11 of our ride from John o’Groats to Land’s End took us from Tiverton to Liskeard across Dartmoor. Very wet, very hilly. Proper hard ride despite being ‘only’ 100km. A lot of fun.